Tag: Trump
I’d understood the dilemma of normalising Trump’s ideas and policies – the racism, misogyny and demonisation of the free press. But watching just one press conference from Otay Mesa helped me understand how the process of reporting about this president can mask and normalise his full and alarming incoherence.
As a foreign reporter visiting the US I was stunned by Trump’s press conference | Lenore Taylor | Opinion | The Guardian
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No president has ever been sent packing. Nixon resigned because he saw it coming. Trump would sooner start a civil war
Neil Cavuto becomes the latest network host to reject Trump’s criticism, saying: ‘My job is to cover you, not fawn over you’
Trouble in paradise: Trump attacks Fox News – and Fox News hits back | US news | The Guardian
Other advocacy efforts worked to grow the dark underbelly of American paranoia. American Future Fund was one of several groups that received over $10 million in 2010 from a Koch-financed nonprofit to run attack ads, including spots that spread the bigoted lie that a victory mosque was planned near the former World Trade Center.
Death by Trump (ODT)
Before he was deported, Jimmy Aldaoud had never stepped foot in Iraq. Born in Greece to Iraqi refugee parents, he immigrated to the United States with his family via a refugee resettlement program 40 years ago, when he was just 15 months old. He considered himself American and knew hardly anything of Iraqi society. Still, on the afternoon of June 4, he found himself wandering the arrivals terminal of Al Najaf International Airport, about 100 miles south of Baghdad, with around $50, some insulin for his diabetes, and the clothes on his back.
He’s now denying any of it on Twitter employing his two word slogan Fake News (ODT)
President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has harnessed Facebook advertising to push the idea of an “invasion” at the southern border, amplifying the fear-inducing language about immigrants that he has also voiced at campaign rallies and on Twitter.
“We don’t have a country right now,” he said in footage shown in one ad. “We have people pouring in, they’re pouring in, and they’re doing tremendous damage.”
He seized on the “invasion” imagery again in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections, when he claimed without evidence that a caravan of migrants making its way north toward the border had been infiltrated by “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners.”
via Trump campaign uses Facebook ads to amplify his ‘invasion’ claim
Trump Demands the Nobel Peace Prize (ODT)
US officials said they are no longer hamstrung and could now develop weapons systems previously banned under the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty with Russia, a Cold War-era agreement that both sides repeatedly accused the other of violating. The treaty was also criticised because it did not cover China or missile technology that did not exist a generation ago.
via US flags new missile test as arms treaty with Russia ends
The New America (ODT)
President Donald Trump slammed one of his leading congressional opponents, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), in a Saturday morning Twitter rant calling him a “brutal bully” and berating his majority-black Baltimore district as a “rodent infested mess.”
It’s the latest in a series of attacks in which the president has used language widely condemned as racist to insult a nonwhite member of Congress, this time prompted by Cummings’ comments about inhumane conditions at the southern border.
via Trump Attacks Elijah Cummings As ‘Brutal Bully’ From ‘Rodent Infested’ District | HuffPost Australia
The hand signal the NZ Christchurch killer used in court is the same as Trump’s.
The hand gesture, often accompanied by a smirk, is associated with white power groups. The middle, ring and pinky fingers is said to represent a ‘W’ (white) and the thumb and forefinger come together to represent a ‘P’ (power).
Gunman’s cruel hand gesture in court – News.com.au
Trump this morning during his speech at Turning Point USA’s Teen Student Action Summit, a far-right group. Apparently signalling to his Aryan brothers that it’s open season on the young congresswoman, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Or maybe it’s just nothing at all. I don’t know. I’m not a White Supremacist with a grudge against brown people and ethnic minorities. You be the judge.
Trump Flashes The White Power Sign In Speech When He Mentions AOC | Crooks and Liars
Any Australian who has been paying even a bit of attention over the past decade would recognise these slogans. They are a staple of the nativist and racist faction of the conservative side of Australian politics.
Now they have become embedded in American political discourse during a week in which President Trump shamelessly lied about four female members of Congress who are also women of colour and progressive Democrats who came to prominence during the “blue wave” of the 2018 mid-term elections.
These women – who have been given the nickname “the squad” – are a major irritation to Donald Trump. They are smart, they’re fierce, they are also women of colour. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is Hispanic, Ilhan Omar was born in Somalia, Rashida Tlaib’s roots are Palestinian and Ayanna Pressley is African-American.
Tlaib and Omar are also Muslim.
via Trump versus the Democratic ‘squad’: A battle for America’s soul
Conclusion: Bigot in Chief
The media and the corporate Democrats are going after Trump and passing meaningless resolutions in the House condemning him for his racist tweets. There is actually a far larger point at play here, and it shows how truly dangerous Trump is.Consider briefly the definition of the word bigot: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudice. Related terms include doctrinaire, fanatic, sectarian.
All of these terms have one thing in common: proponents lack that quality which being President of the United States most requires: mental flexibility
This is what makes Trump so dangerous: not his racism, not the fact-free nonsense he spouts on a daily basis, but his simplistic, dogmatic and rigid world view. His inability to learn, to change, to adapt. For all the vile crap he has said in and out of office, look beyond that and see the true danger: the man in charge of the largest military in human history is not capable of learning anything.
via The Bigot in Chief: Trump’s Intolerant Past – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Trump, Pence and Fox Corp’s FAKE NEWS (ODT)
Trump, Pence, and others blame the Democrats for the lack of funding to hold the immigrants more humanely, but this excuse makes no sense. Law enforcement is obligated to moderate its actions in line with the resources that lawmakers have allocated. Trump pretends that locking up every unauthorized border-crosser — even if they’re seeking aslyum, which is a legal form of immigration — is necessary to preserve the rule of law, but this is not so.
If state police decided that they needed to arrest, or even just stop, every driver going over the speed limit, chaos would ensue. Instead, they decide to go after the most egregious offenders when possible with the resources they have available.
But Trump has decided that, as a rule, any unauthorized border-crosser is dangerous and so they all must be locked up. This is absurd and plainly bigoted, and it’s not how any other reasonable form of law enforcement works. If you don’t have the resources to enforce the law humanely — particularly when the law in question concerns a non-violent offense like crossing the border between points of entry — then you should scale back on enforcement actions. Choosing to continue to lock people up, despite the abysmal conditions and with a presumption that an entire population of people is inherently dangerous, is exactly why the system of concentration camps Dawsey and others have documented is an affront to basic human rights.
Trump admits to being the most intelligent too. The Teleprompter went haywire (ODT)
US President Donald Trump has blamed wet weather and a teleprompter fault for his reference to 18th century airports in his Independence Day speech.
Mr Trump told rain-soaked crowds that American troops fighting the British “took over the airports” during the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century.
Observers were quick to point out that airports did not exist at the time, as the aeroplane was yet to be invented.
US President Donald Trump has blamed wet weather and a teleprompter fault for his reference to 18th century airports in his Independence Day speech.
Mr Trump told rain-soaked crowds that American troops fighting the British “took over the airports” during the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century.
Observers were quick to point out that airports did not exist at the time, as the aeroplane was yet to be invented.
via 
In 2005, Trump told Stern he wanted to have kids with Melania (this was just before his affair with Stormy Daniels). “‘Cause I like kids,” said Trump. “I mean, I won’t do anything to take care of them,” he bragged. “I’ll supply funds and she’ll take care of the kids. It’s not like I’m gonna be walking the kids down Central Park.”
Prince of a fellow there, but probably not likely to be named Father of the Year, unless Lindsey Graham needs to engage in a little more personal self-abasement, or Mike Pence gets to feeling he hasn’t sucked up enough to the boss lately.
Now, however, Stern, with a book coming out, says he’s “evolved,” and that he’d “feel really shitty” if he hadn’t. Don’t look for him to turn over any of that $650 million to charities or to help the kids at the border, or make good on the harm he did by ridiculing dwarves and drunks, however, or by insulting women, or just being the Crown Prince of American Jerks, the Avatar of American Assholery.
And, unless you’re an asshole yourself, don’t buy his fuckin’ book. Send what you’d spend on that trash to provide relief for the immigrant children at the border, maybe. Or just throw the dough in the gutter.
via Howard Stern, Donald Trump, and the Rise of American Fascism | The Smirking Chimp
What is the common denominator between all three? Not thet they are Conservatives but Rupert Murdoch to whom they all bow down. (ODT)
What is this phenomenon, that such a madcap clown is actually considered front-runner against one other opponent, the Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, for the country’s highest office?
“Brexit” Boris to join Trump and Morrison in the conservative leaders’ club
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The Trump-Fox feedback loop could cause a war with Iran
blog June 17, 2019 4:57 PM EDT
- Fox both serves as Trump’s personal propaganda outlet and shapes his worldview. The president regularly watches hours of Fox coverage and often tweets about segments that catch his eye. He has stocked his administration with former Fox personalities, the network’s most prominent figures serve as his outside advisers, and guests openly appeal to him during their on-air appearances. Fox segments have an immense influence over this White House, with the president acting based on what he sees on the network on everything from political strategy to pardons.
- It remains unclear how the conflict between the U.S. and Iran will play out. But with the stakes this high, it’s unnerving that the president is wallowing in Fox’s spin.
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Trump tweeted about this Fox News segment that encouraged a US military strike on Iran
video June 17, 2019 1:00 PM EDT
Here, then, is the question of the day, the sort you’d ask about any patient with a rising temperature: If Donald Trump is only the symptom, what’s the disease?
via If Donald Trump Is the Symptom… Then What’s the Disease? | The Smirking Chimp
Trump is a walking, talking national security liability